# Quoting Terence Tao

DevFeed: [Quoting Terence Tao](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/quoting-terence-tao-31186.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/9/terence-tao/>)

Author: Simon Willison

Published: 2026-09-09T00:20:17Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Simon Willison's Weblog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/simon-willison-s-weblog.md>)

Topics: [ai-ethics](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-ethics.md>), [Mathematics](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mathematics.md>), [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ai-2-236](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-2-236.md>), [ai-ethics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-ethics.md>), [ai-ethics-343](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-ethics-343.md>), [ethics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ethics.md>), [mathematics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mathematics.md>), [mathematics-22](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mathematics-22.md>)

## AI overview

The article quotes Terence Tao on the risk that AI-powered efforts could rapidly exhaust promising open mathematical problems after even rumors of active research become public. It argues that these incentives may discourage researchers from sharing directions openly, potentially harming long-standing traditions of open science and the future of the field.

## Source excerpt

I wrote recently about how the collection of good, fruitful open problems is now being mined in a non-renewable fashion, leading to the potential scenario of these problems becoming scarce. [...] We have now seen that even the rumor of someone working on a problem can trigger a massive amount of AI-powered effort to flatten it before the original research project has time to reach its full potential. The incentives may now be pointing in the direction of no longer sharing any promising research directions with the broader community, which would reverse centuries of traditions of open science and do serious long-term damage to the future of the field. -- Terence Tao Tags: ai-ethics, mathematics, ai